As a private citizen and a public official, Theodore Roosevelt made substantial contributions to the preservation of species, from setting aside lands for the dwindling bison to creating the first national bird refuge to protect birds like the brown pelican and great blue heron.

In a letter to Museum ornithologist Frank Chapman in 1899, he wrote, “When I hear of the destruction of a species I feel just as if all the works of some great writer had perished.”

Hawksbill sea turtles are critically endangered.

Caroline Rogers, USGS

Roosevelt’s legacy continues to grow because of legislation passed during his administration. In 2008, then-President George W. Bush used the Act for the Preservation of Antiquities, first signed into law by Roosevelt on June 8, 1906, to declare three marine national monuments in the Pacific, covering an area the size of California. One of them encompasses the Palmyra Atoll where a consortium led by the Museum’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation is monitoring the health of the reef ecosystem and its wildlife, including the Hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata), which can be seen in the Museum's case of endangered species.